The End of Modern Civilization

Invasion USA #1

by T.I. Wade

At exactly midnight on December 31, every electronic device made in China for the last 30 years stops working!

From the U.S. electrical grid and all its back-ups, engine control-management systems, early warning systems on U.S. satellites, every motor vehicle, aircraft and ship made after 1985, to even simple memory chips inside children’s teddy bears—every electronic fuse, resistor, or connector that was “Made in China” becomes dormant… forever.

At one minute past midnight on January 1st, every modern television broadcast of the U.S. New Year’s Eve festivities on the East Coast black-out. Millions of motor vehicles with an engine management system or engine-computerized system suddenly die, causing loss of control and thousands of accidents only seconds into the New Year. Traffic lights, directional beacons, communication stations, and all aircraft landing systems black out a couple of minutes later, as their modern back-ups start failing. Children’s Christmas presents, nearly forgotten, stop buzzing, moving, and blinking and go silent. Radios, computers, and all forms of electronic communication devices—even the latest 132 million electronic Christmas presents given only a week earlier (iPhone 5Gs, IPod Nano 4s, IMac Notepads and iPad 3s) go silent, never to blink on again. Ninety seconds after midnight, the entire electrical grid of North America deactivates itself and goes into close-down mode.

The shutdown of the United States of America, and 97% of the entire world, is accomplished by 12:30 am U.S. Eastern time on the first day of the New Year.

It takes only 30 minutes to completely dismantle the whole of modern Western civilization.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Post Apocalyptic, Apocalyptic, War, Science Fiction, Alternate History

419 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2011

About the author

T I Wade was born in Bromley, Kent, England in 1954. His father, a banker was promoted with his International Bank to Africa and the young family moved to Africa in 1956. The author grew up in Southern Rhodesia.
Once he had completed his mandatory military commitments, at 21 he left Africa to mature in Europe. He enjoyed Europe and lived in three countries; England, Germany and Portugal for 15 years before returning to Africa; Cape Town in 1989. Here the author owned and ran a restaurant, a coffee manufacturing and retail business, flew a Cessna 210 around desolate southern Africa and finally got married in 1992. Due to the upheavals of the political turmoil in South Africa, the Wade family of three moved to the United States in 1996. Park City, Utah was where his writing career began.
To date T I Wade has written sixteen novels.

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was very hard to finish. Honestly, I skimmed about half. I couldn't get into it. It's just too drawn out. Too long and tedious. Too boring. The last third, after the catastrophe, when all the action picks up, is good. The concept is good. The writing...not so much.

So basically, a Chinese corporation spends 30 years getting their microchips and computer part thingies into everything around the world. If it has "Made In China" stamped on it, these guys probably made it. Then, they decide to flip the kill switch and shut it all down. Apparently, it's up to a group of plane enthusiasts to figure out why and - I'm assuming - save the day.

Great concept. Really good idea. Very tedious. I'm trying to think of good things to say, but other than "great concept," I can't. The first 2/3 of the book are spent setting everything up...in excruciating detail. Seriously, I don't need to know the family history and background of EVERY character. It was so hard to muddle through it all. I really just ended up skimming it. Once the action picked up, it was still a bit tedious, but it was at least interesting.

The biggest problem I have with this novel, other than how boring it was, was that I couldn't connect with any character. I usually can connect with the main character and a few of the others. The character I felt the most connection to was the chairman of the Chinese corp. I just wanted him to hurry up and push the button and hopefully get rid of the main characters. Really, though, I seriously did like the idea - that's why I got the book - but it was just SO hard to read! Normally when I read, I stop seeing words and start seeing the story. Didn't happen here. I just couldn't get engrossed like I normally do. Hopefully, the next book will be better. I don't know if I'll get it, though. If I do, it'll be after the price comes down or it goes on sale or something. I can't justify spending almost $5 for the sequel to a book I didn't really like.

Aviation buffs will probably love the book, though.

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very hard book to read. Longggg, drawn out and over written for the first 65-70% of the book. Tedious detail after detail while we wait for the button to be pushed and then, it gets good.
Great final 30-35% doesn’t quite make up for how awful the first part is.

[Jefrois · Rating 1 out of 5]

.
.
The big LONG, drawn-out, run down of who flies What and Where and When, is boring, unwanted, unneeded, uncalled for, and incompetent writing, and over-done, dumb, stoopid, and, egotistical.

I personally cood due wiffout it!!!!

Further, with all the names, makes, and models, it rapidly became un-followable. What a DUMB BIT OF WRITING!!

Telling the backstory on “Will” and “Maggie” backwards was — for me — NOT confidence-instilling.

Oh…and this whole thing really crashed for me when:

(She) “…wore four stripes on her shirt lapels showing her captain’s rank, and was a six-foot tall, leggy redhead. Buck felt scared for the first time in his life. He already knew by looking at her for a split second that she was an inch taller than he, could outrun him, out-fly him, out-drink him, out-party him and probably could eat him alive any time she wanted. And he wouldn’t mind…!”

And then, along came:

“… Will was suddenly at a loss as to what to do with this young lady looking straight into his official detective eyes without blinking, chin forward, and showing off her toughness. As is common for men when they have suddenly met their match….”

“… ‘Shame on you, Maggie,’ laughed her mother. ‘You scared the bejeezus out of that young boy! He’s surely not going to phone you after all that!’

‘If he’s got a big joystick and instrument panel, he’ll call,’ Maggie replied….”

“Oprah [apparent “WOKE” name of Smart’s daughter] loved playing with the hardware on computers and her dad proudly stated to his colleagues at the station that every time a car was reported stolen he hoped it wasn’t his daughter, because she could hot wire ‘anything from a lawn mower to an aircraft carrier.’”

OMG! I WISH I WERE A WOMAN!!!!!! 😀

Know what” I quit. At P. 87, I’m returning this POS and finding something else to maybe totally waste my time on.
.
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[Barry Sherrill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific vacation book. Very believable and chilling. Even if you're not an aviation buff, it's still exciting. Characters are easy to believe and the good guys are very likable. Highly recommended!

[Brad Theado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it!!!

[Carol orr · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I like this book but . . .

No plot spoilers (it's in the blurb anyway but, still)
No potential triggers
There are numerous errors, including missing words (to, and, at etc.)
This doesn't actually spoil the read, it just irritates a bit.
Then there are the other type of errors, the most irritating being one of the characters is a huge Elvis fan and speaks of shaking his hand in 1983, Elvis died in 1977 so that was a biggie for me. There are some others but in all honesty I lost count.
It STILL doesn't spoil the book.
The first 25% or so is a detailed bio of each character, and I found that boring. I don't think I've ever read a book before where the characters are introduced as if it's a casting and I found it really odd.
Most often characters are brought in through a timeline and the reader learns bits of them as the story expands, it's how people judge others, through experience. Instead we learn who they were born to, where they went to school, how they got into flying, which university they went to and which degrees they pursued. Obviously we are told of how they meet each other and how their lives intersect as time lapses.
Then the actual storyline starts with a boardroom 30 years earlier and we are introduced in much the same way to those players.
What I missed was the motivators behind the action, there weren't any. Other than a certain amount of megalomania which I thought presumptuous given most megalomaniacs take decades to reach that state of being as opposed to the 30 or 40 years given in the book.
Also, forgive me for daring to question the political climate of China throughout the timeline and stating categorically that the communist system within the country would preclude the events and planning.
However, suspending belief is a pre requisite of any novel and I am happy to do so with this series, I just think it could have been explained with more finesse.
What I am NOT happy about is the misogynistic undertones - the women will do all the cooking, fighter pilots being called little girls and the constant unspoken view point that the men know best.
Of course, there are elements of racial discrimination too, the most offensive being the 'oriental' label and one character wishing another a 'melly chlistmas' that the character is Chinese only makes it worse, as if the author has attempted to make it okay by having the character make fun of himself. It doesn't work, it's still offensive.
Obviously we are all entitled to our own views, but the book is targeted to a wide audience and the author should really ensure his own views do not colour the story he wants others to purchase.
I first read this book years ago and recently found it again and I have to say that irrespective of the comments above, there is still something about the book that makes me want to continue to read the next book.
There is a huge amount of flight speak, I am not a pilot. I understand the basics and as a reader that should be all I need to understand, but there are parts where I felt as if I were about to be tested on the answers regarding fuel requirements for distance and weight not to mention the various different planes. Then there is the logistical aspect of food, aid and weapons. Lots and lots of planning and explanation.
There are no sex scenes and little if any swearing.
Yes, I will be purchasing the next book to see if the series is worth pursuing, because at the end of this long review I reiterate that there is something about it that makes me want to read on.
I don't hesitate to recommend the book to fans of the prepper/invasion genre, after all the first book is free and you can make your own mind up from there.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a terrible book, but littered with grammer mistakes.

I enjoyed reading it, but it got off to a slow start. Once the event happened, things got moving pretty quickly. My biggest pet peeve is silly grammar mistakes. I'm not part of the gra,,ar police, but some were obvious and even a bit confusing. Anyway, I enjoyed it. Please note I did get this book for free from Amazon.com. I'm not sure if I will purchase the second novel.

[Raymond St. Paul · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nah

No wonder this was free. I skipped so many pages kept wondering why do many people gave this story so much praise. Perhaps it's the rest of the tale of certain page details but I found the whole scenario idiotic it wouldn't do the enemy any good an cause them as much hardships as everyone else.

[gerald morson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good

A bit slow to start ,but once into the plot it was easy to follow ,on to book to do I can read more

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has been a while since I read this. But it was enjoyable and not to be taken as a book of high literature.

[Debra Chapoton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not finish. Too much irrelevant stuff, not enough action.

[Kevin Blitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow to start. The book picked up about halfway into it. The story is great and scary that it could actually happen.

[Paul Belanger · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story itself is okay, but the characters seemed to be carbon copies of each other. Everyone was an expert electrical engineer and expert pilot. The main character is rich, has his own airfield, and owns a couple of war birds. Some of his normal friends own war birds as well. I wish I could own a war bird or two. They're expensive to own and even more expensive to operate and maintain.

I read a review elsewhere complaining about the editing and conversations not being real. I agree. The editing is very bad. I found many missing words or use of the wrong word. It gave me the impression that the editor never actually read the book but only glanced for red underlines in a word processor. Granted, I didn't see any misspellings, but come on. If I can catch things like this why can't someone who is trained, and paid, catch it? That's the biggest travesty. Then the editor would have cleaned up the horrible conversations too.

Well, I'm a pilot, so aviation-related stories get a more critical eye. At one point the author is talking about airspeed in a run-on sentence and then uses the word altitude erroneously. I wish I wrote it down so I could quote the misuse but, alas, I didn't. The editor should've flagged the sentence for the author to review. Then in a couple of places he refers to Flight Level 25. All Flight Levels in the US drop the last two zeroes starting at 18,000' (Flight Level 180). So it should have been Flight Level 250. In foreign countries the Flight Levels can start much lower, like 4,000' (or Flight Level 40). Sorry for the lesson. Some military flight simulators I've played used different terminology. So 25,000' would be Angels 25. Maybe the author confused the two?

Luckily, I got the book for free on Amazon during a promotion. It was mildly interesting enough that I bought the second book. Look for that review next.

[S · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started and stopped reading this book 3 times before I eventually persevered and got through the early chapters. The reason for my persistence was because I liked the concept very much and after reading a review of the second book in the series I decided to give it another try. The problem I found was the first couple of chapters were not engaging enough and the author flooded the book with in depth material about the old planes, which whilst informative could put off casual readers. There was a lot of flying around going on without much storyline progression in the earlier chapters but once the Chinese angle of the story came in to play the story became a little more interesting.

***SPOILERS***

I would like to have read more about the character Lee Wang and find out more about he became friends with Carlos as I found his character to be one of the more interesting. Furthermore, it wasn't really made clear as to whether Lee had grown disillusioned with his undercover job or whether he was just reacting to the threat of the hit squad. I also found it a bit implausible that the military just decided to base themselves in Preston's farm within 24 hours of the attack and the troops started taking instruction from Preston!

Overall, the final third of the book was well paced and enjoyable and by the time I finished the final chapter I was ready to jump straight in to the second book.

[Javida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Invasion USA is a series about how the Chinese turn off everything made in china after 1985 in an attempt to take over the world. The setting of the first book is all over the United States and in some parts of China. The book is told by several different perspectives, but every main character has something in common they like to collect and fly ancient antique World War 2 planes. They also have friends who collect World War 2 army vehicles. Together they might be the new USA air force and Army.
In my opinion this book was amazing, it was written very well and it has a good plot. The writer really makes you understand everything that is going on. You get to know the characters like you know your best friends. When the author described what it was like to be flying I felt like I was actually in the plane. He talked about the amazing views and the swoosh of the wings as the plane banks.This book was great and I am currently reading the second in the series.

[Steve Rankin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot was great I would actually give that 5 stars. The problem was, there was WAY to much character development going on late in the book. I do not expect to STILL be going through character development (including flash backs to already written points) halfway through a book. At least not with an action book, Which is what this one reads like.

Also there were many many places where there was a need for better proofreading and spell check, repeated words, misspelled words use of the wrong homophone. For me, The editing was what really dragged this book down so bad that it lost stars.

If this could be cleaned up and made a little less stilted I might be inclined to think about reading more books by this author.

[Drew · Rating 2 out of 5]

The two start rating on this book is based on the book alone. The problem from my eyes of this book is that it sets the stage for later books in the series. As a result there is a lot of background and a lack of action in this book. For the first 250 or so pages it is truly just background which I’m sure will be helpful in the later books, but wasn’t good for a standalone book. After reading this I am planning on going on to book two but if you’re looking to get this book then be aware that you’ll probably have to commit to at least two books rather than just the one. Also pilots will love this book as there is a lot of flying talk!

[Ann237 · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, this would make a great movie! Even though it was a bit dragged out at times in the beginning, with all the different airplanes, and character descriptions, most of it all fell into relevancy later on. I found myself looking up the different planes on the web for a better visual, in my reading experience. The author did a great job in giving the reader food for thought. How far will some go for control? Some would say not that far, I would reply " watch the news to see how far people go, and the things they do for a hell of a lot less." So glad I do not have to wait for book 2 to be written. I may just dive right in now....

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting story.. sends shivers up you spine (thinking it could REALLY happen!!) I struggled a bit for the firat part (about 60% of the book) and then I couldn;t put it down.. finished the last 40% in one sitting!! The first half is setting up the story - fair enough ut the minute details of every kind of aircraft got very boring. I love flying too but who cares if a model C plane is 7 kilometers slower than a model D ?? It detracts from the story.

Some great characters are involved in this end-of-the-world-as-we know-it saga and I just hope the next books are as good 'cos this first one leave you on a terrific cliff hanger..

[Balthazar Lawson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is very drawn out in parts and thus very dull in parts. It's also repetitious and full of totally pointless details about flying. If a good editor got hold of this book it could have been cut by almost half.

The idea is interesting but the execution of that idea is a bit of a disaster.

I like future war thrillers and unfortunately this doesn't get to that stage as it's only the first part in a series and the war has yet to begin. This is the biggest let down of the book. It's the prelude to the real events.

Overall I was disappointed with this.

The story only got interesting when things started going wrong.

[Brian Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Techno thriller about a takeover of the worlds major powers, and the aftermath.
Good thing was the cause of the takeover, and how long it took to implement (no Bond style super weapons).
The villains were also fairly credible, and their parts of the book are where it shines.

The heroes...all seemed to be super intelligent, super rich, and able to afford what may turn out to be the solution. Unfortunately, their parts of the book seemed to drag (quite a wordy bunch).

Despite the world being taken over, it's very USA-centric at this point, not sure if that will change in later books.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This looks like a solid beginning to a great series. At first I thought this might be related to the old Chuck Norris film Invasion USA. I was wrong. This book was about a Chinese plot to shut down the majority of the world's electronics. Once that is accomplished it was up to a group of pilots to start restoring communications with antique aircraft. This book dealt alot with refurbished planes and going around newer circuit boards. I had a great time reading it and am looking forward to the next one in the series.

[Nigel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think there was a decent story trying to get out here, but with nearly 20% of the book read all I read about was biographies of about 5 people including their private plane owning and flying experience and two board meeting summaries of Chinese meetings that appear to be plotting something but without the book blurb I would have had no idea what was going on. 20% of the book with basically nothing happening except background information made it a book not worth continuing as far as I was concerned

[Thomas Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I agree with both pro and con comments made by other reviewers. Pro: a very believable and chilling scenario. Con: way to much character development and too much time building up to the disaster part. That said I will read the next book in the series as I do like the story line. This was your classic, "The first one's free" gambit of a free Kindle book but hey, I really knew that going into it!

[Sonny · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was like reading a technical manual for flying. If you are into aviation, you will probably enjoy this book. I'm not into a aviation that much so it was pretty boring for me. I'll be honest I did not finish this book and I skimmed through about the last third I did read. Two thirds through before any thing resembling an invasion starting and by this time I am no longer interested. Too many other books out there to read without wasting time on excruciating reading such as this.

[Jerry Blackerby · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best apocalyptic books I have ever read. At exactly midnight EST, every electronic device made in China or with parts from China shuts down. Airplanes crash worldwide, the electricity grid stops, automobiles stop and anything else with an electronic control built in recent years stops. The details in this book are better than most I have ever read. Everything sounds very possible and plausible. I am looking forward to the next books in the series.

[creig speed · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is good

The story is good but the writing is poor. The author is not adept at his craft yet. The story had bizarre details irrelevant to the telling of the story and the dialogue between the characters was stiff and hard to imagine from these characters. However, the story is good and plausible. I am considering getting the next book in the series and I hope the writing is better.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

First 3/4 of the book are character history and development. Last 1/4 of the book is the best part and just when it gets good, it ends. Problem is now I want to find out what happens so my OCD is going to make me buy the sequels. I don't want too but I have too.

Also, very bad editing. Lots of typos.

[Hrairoorah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not finish this one. It started OK, but the entire beginning of the book was all about airplanes and this group of people buying and restoring said planes. It was incredibly boring to someone that is not an airplane fanatic, of which I am one.

I kept waiting for the action to pick up but it never did and I just lost all interest.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one will depend on your reading style. its a grest book and the beginning of a series but as a book on its own it becomes difficult to enjoy. the plot and story were good, im an aviation enthusiast so i related to that side of it as well.
overall if your intending in reading this make sure with a view to completing the entire series. the second and third books are entirely different reads.